September 24, 2016 5:46 pm

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Rome, Italy, Sep 24 – Pope Francis on Saturday called for a “sincere dialogue” between Christians and Muslims as he met grieving relatives and survivors of France’s Bastille Day attack, in which a jihadist ploughed his truck into a crowd.

The pope, who this week denounced violence in the name of religion, declaring “there is no God of war”, met 180 people who were wounded or left traumatised or bereaved by the July 14 attack in Nice which claimed 86 lives.

“We need to start a sincere dialogue and have fraternal relations between everybody, especially those who believe in a sole God who is merciful,” he said, speaking in the Vatican’s giant Paul VI audience hall, adding that this was “an urgent priority.”

“It is with a feeling of great emotion that I am meeting you, those who are suffering in body and in spirit because an evening of festivity turned into one of violence which struck blindly at all, without taking into account their origins or religion,” the pontiff said.

“We can only respond to the Devil’s attacks with God’s works which are forgiveness, love and respect for the other, even if they are different,” he said.

Members of 58 families were flown in especially from the French Riviera resort city of Nice.

They were joined in Rome by 150 others who travelled from France by car and a delegation from a French regional interreligious group, including the Catholic bishop of Nice and Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and Protestant representatives.

– ‘Magical solace ‘ –

“It was a moment of magical solace after what happened to us 73 days ago,” said Vincent Delhommel Desmarest, who runs a restaurant on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice where the attack happened.

Desmarest has been on sick leave ever since and now sees a psychologist three times a week.

“I don’t sleep at night. The whole scene of the lorry moving, the mutilated bodies, decapitated, the entrails,” he said.

The 49-year-old has decided to create a local association to support the victims of that night.

Abdhallah Kebaier, who has to walk with a stick after being injured in the attack, said it was “comforting to be in the gathering as we had the feeling we’d been forgotten.

“The attack resembled a war scene,” he said. “I live only 400 metres (1,300 feet) away from the Promenade des Anglais but I never go there any more,” he said.

Last month the Argentine pontiff met French President Francois Hollande to offer his support and condolences to a country which has been rocked by a series of deadly attacks since early 2015.

While speaking out against violent acts carried out in the name of any god, Francis this week reminded the West that there were parts of the world being flattened by fighting.

– ‘Open to all faiths’ –

Speaking in the Italian town of Assisi on Tuesday he said, “We are frightened… by some terrorist acts”, but “this is nothing compared to what is happening in those countries, in those lands where day and night bombs fall.”

French police on Tuesday arrested eight associates of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old Tunisian, who rammed the 19-tonne truck through the crowd of more than 30,000 people on the seafront Promenade des Anglais on July 14 before police shot him dead.

A total of 434 people were injured in the attack.

A third of those who died in the Nice attack were of the Muslim faith, said Imam Boubekeur Bekri, vice-president of the Southeast France regional Muslim council, who also attended the meeting.